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This course surveys recent historiographical and
theoretical treatments of gender history, drawn mostly from the field
of U.S. history, for students intending to pursue a minor field in
gender history. Students minoring in this field will also need to take
another course or do a directed readings tutorial with a non-U.S.
member of the faculty.
This course is arranged both topically and
chronologically, from the colonial period through the present. We will
read material that questions how gender is relevant for understanding
the formation of the American republic, the development of democracy
and republican citizenship, the formation, practice and abolition of
slavery, the development of industrial capitalism, the development of
“scientific” ideas about race, class, and sexuality, and the
establishment of the United States as an imperial world power. In each
unit, we will be asking what difference does a gendered analysis make
to our understanding of this historical problem; what contributions and
challenges are gender historians offering the profession? Students are
encouraged to narrow down these big questions to smaller ones: i.e.,
What difference does gender make to the study of the Civil War? might
be reformulated as: How did the Civil War affect gender roles during
and after the war?
Background Information
What differentiates gender history from women's
history, among other things, are the subjects of inquiry and the
agreed-upon methodologies for approaching the subjects under
investigation. In women's history, the subject is women themselves,
their experiences and activities. The methodology is empirical and
positivistic. Women's history is about what happens to women and how
women act in the world.
In the case of gender, the primary subject is the
meaning attributed to sexual differences and the import this has for
relations of power (relations of authority and subordination). The
methodology of gender historians may be empirical, but it is often also
highly theoretical. The objects of study in gender history may extend
beyond the study of sexual difference to include other phenomena, such
as the economy, relations of production, slavery and industrialization,
war, families, collective action and political ideas.
Course Objectives
A critical operating assumption in this field is
that knowledge about gender is subject to contestation, and thus always
in need of reiteration and re-implementation—even though knowledge
about sexual difference often has the appearance of certainty and
stability. Therefore, one of the objectives of gender historians, and
of this course as well, is to explain how knowledge about gender is
perpetuated and legitimized. Upon completion of this course, students
should have a fundamental understanding of the field of U.S. gender
history—its objects of inquiry, methodologies, foremost scholars, etc.,
as well as a preliminary understanding of how the subfield interacts
with and functions within the larger profession. Along the way,
students will have numerous opportunities to develop important academic
skills: the ability to read critically, analyze thoughtfully and write
confidently.
Background Required
The course presumes some knowledge of the basic
narratives in U.S. women's history, and we will discuss these
narratives over the semester. For students who lack this knowledge, I
recommend reading DuBois and Dumeril's textbook on a regular basis,
pairing this with our other readings, as we move through the course
week to week. You are also welcome to attend some of the lectures in my
undergraduate course in U.S. women's history (AMH 3562), which meets in
Little Hall, MWF at 11:45. (Interested students should see me to
arrange for this option.)
Monographs (a few copies of each
title will be available at Wild Iris bookstore, 802 University Ave ):
Briggs, Laura. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex,
Science and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico . University of
California Press, 2002.
Brown, Kathleen M. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches
& Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia .
University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Gilmore, Glenda. Gender and Jim Crow: Women
and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina , 1896-1920. University
of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Hoganson, Kristin. Fighting for American
Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and
Philippine-American Wars . Yale University Press, 1998.
Kerber, Linda. No Constitutional Right to be
Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. Hill and Wang,
1998.
Newman, Louise Michele. White Women's Rights:
The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States . Oxford
University Press, 1999. (free copies will be distributed to students in
class)
Pierson, Michael D. Free Hearts and Free
Homes. University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Articles
Most articles are available online through JSTOR
and are listed separately on the accompanying course schedule.
Other useful resources
DuBois, Ellen and Dumeril, Lynn. Through
Women's Eyes. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. (available t Wild Iris
bookstore) Also check website: http://bedfordstmartins.com/duboisdumenil
Hewitt, Nancy A. A Companion to American
Women's History. Blackwell, 2002, 2005.
For a good discussion of textbooks published
through 1992, see Anne Boylan's review available on JStor:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0046-3663%28199222%2918%3A2%3C351%3ATIUWH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3
Participation in and leading of class discussions:
25%
Written Work: 75%
Writing Assignments
Paper 1 (8-10pp 25% of course grade):
Answer a question that is set by the instructor and will be distributed
in week 4 of the course and is due week 7.
Final Paper (15p/ 50% of course grade): Select a
topic that has had relevance for both U.S. historians and historians of
other nation-states (imperialism or empire, nationalism, prostitution,
consumption, labor, masculinity, World War 1, World War 2, and
motherhood are topics that immediately come to mind) and compare some
of the major works in these two historiographies.
For this assignment, you will need to read a range
of articles/monographs that are not listed on the syllabus. Often
authors will tell you in their introductions and footnotes what
literature they are engaged with and/or are attempting to revise. To
find relevant sources, I recommend using JSTOR to locate articles and
checking the excellent bibliographies in DuBois and Dumeril's textbook
for full-length monographs. Keep in mind that JSTOR only indexes
articles from some journals through the mid 1990s. You will have to
find other ways to locate the most recently published articles, a
challenge given that the journals are in storage and must be requested
individually, volume by volume.
Final paper is due in stages, weeks 13 and 16.
Essays that can serve as a model of what I am
looking for in the final paper:
1) Gender,
Consumption, and Commodity Culture
Mary
Louise Roberts
The
American Historical Review > Vol.
103, No. 3 (Jun., 1998), pp. 817-844
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8762%28199806%29103%3A3%3C817%3AGCACC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F
2) Review:
Dissent Over Discourse: Labor History, Gender, and the Linguistic Turn
Author(s) of Review: Laura
L. Frader
Reviewed Work(s): Rethinking Labor History: Essays on Discourse and
Class Analysis. by Lenard R. Berlanstein
Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor. by Ava Baron
History
and Theory > Vol.
34, No. 3 (Oct., 1995), pp. 213-230
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2656%28199510%2934%3A3%3C213%3ADODLHG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1
Attendance Policy
Attendance is mandatory and will be taken EVERY
class, sometimes in the form of an "assessment of class discussion," to
be submitted at the end of a session. These responses, while not graded
individually, will be saved by the instructor and form part of the
"in-class participation" grade calculated at the end of the semester.
Once class begins, the door will be closed and
latecomers will not be admitted. There will be severe penalties for
missing class, taken in the form of grade deductions. Students can have
one "free" absence (no grade deduction). Students who attend all
classes will have a half grade added to their final course grade.
Otherwise, penalties will be applied as follows.
0 absences; half grade will be added to the
final course grade.
If you earned an "A", you will receive an A+. If
you earned an A-, you will receive an A. If you earned a B+, you will
receive an A- (herein lies the value/incentive to this system), and so
forth.
1 absence: no penalty.
2 absences: half a grade will be deducted from
the final course grade as follows.
If you earned an "A" or "A-" you will receive a
B+. If you earned a B+ you will receive a B. If you earned a B or B-,
you will receive a C+. If you earned a C+ you will receive a C, etc.
3 absences: a full grade will be deducted from
the final course grade as follows.
If you earned an A or A- you will receive a B. If
you earned a B+, you will receive a C+. If you earned a B or B-, you
will receive a C, etc.
4 absences or more: students will receive a
failing grade, no matter what grade they earned.
Plagiarism Warning
In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use
words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone
else's work. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting
is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please review the University's
honesty policy at www.dso.ufl.edu/Academic_Honesty.html
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